Instructions

ZOOM IN by clicking on the page. A slider will appear, allowing you to adjust your zoom level. Return to the original size by clicking on the page again.

MOVE the page around when zoomed in by dragging it.

ADJUST the zoom using the slider on the top right.

ZOOM OUT by clicking on the zoomed-in page.

SEARCH by entering text in the search field and click on "In This Issue" or "All Issues" to search the current issue or the archive of back issues
respectively.
.

PRINT by clicking on thumbnails to select pages, and then press the
print button.

SHARE this publication and page.

ROTATE PAGE allows you to turn pages 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.Click on the page to return to the original orientation. To zoom in on a rotated page, return the page to its original orientation, zoom in, and
then rotate it again.

CONTENTS displays a table of sections with thumbnails and descriptions.

ALL PAGES displays thumbnails of every page in the issue. Click on
a page to jump.

A8
news
Guardian www.guardian.co.tt Wednesday, November 20, 2013
RESHMA RAGOONATH
President of the San
Fernando Business
Association Daphne
Bartlett is calling for the
immediate removal of
street dwellers in the
southern city in the
interest of public safe-
ty.She made the appeal
after a homeless man
reportedly smashed the
glass doors of two stores
on Lower High Street,
San Fernando.
Bartlett, who spoke in
a telephone interview
yesterday, said the inci-
dent demands the imme-
diate attention of the rel-
evant authorities.
Around 7.50 am yes-
terday, the man was
detained on lower High
Street where he was
behaving erratically and
smashed the glass doors
at Bang Bang clothing
store and Standard Dis-
tributors.
The police and the
Emergency Health Serv-
ices (EHS) were contact-
ed. The man was
detained and taken the
hospital for treatment
after he sustained injuries
from shards of glass.
A Standard official,
who requested anonymi-
ty, confirmed the inci-
dent. The official said no
customer was in the store
at the time of the inci-
dent and employees who
were on duty were not
hurt.
But Akim Hypolite,
marketing manager at
Bang Bang, said based on
camera footage at his
store, it appeared the man
YVONNE BABOOLAL
University of the West Indies
pro vice-chancellor and campus
principal Prof Clement Sankat
says he would like to see the
country move forward from one
that speaks to the politics of race
to one that truly begins a con-
versation on the politics of devel-
opment.
Sankat expressed this desire
during an address at the launch
of the book Trinidad and Tobago
and Guyana: Race and Politics in
Two Plural Societies by Prof Ann
Marie Bissessar and Prof John
Gaffar La Guerre at the office of
the campus principal at UWI, St
Augustine yesterday.
He addressed a roomful of peo-
ple including scholars, Integrity
Commission chairman Ken Gor-
don, chairman of the Equal
Opportunity Justice Rajmanlal
Joseph, Sanatan Dharma Maha
Sabha secretary general Sat
Maharaj, Food Production Minister
Devant Maharaj and political sci-
entist Dr Selwyn Ryan. Bissessar
said she invited them because they
were her "tribe."
Noting the book was extremely
relevant and timely, to T&T in
particular, because of the four
elections held this year, Sankat
said: "While these elections may
reflect strong democratic princi-
ples, one may ask how has race
and ethnicity influenced the out-
come of these, and other elections
in the past.
"How does race impact upon
politics and, consequently, the
governance structure of our coun-
try?" he asked.
Quoting an observation by Prof
Robin Cohen of Oxford University
on the book, he said while the
authors covered the demographic
and historical background to race
relations in Guyana and T&T, they
placed the most emphasis on how
governments and leaderships
amplified or dampened race con-
flict.
Recommending the book as
"essential reading" for political
analysts and politicians, Sankat
said it was important for the
nation to find the pathway to
progress, irrespective of short-
term electoral outcomes.
Sankat, a Guyanese national,
said he left that country 44 years
ago and to date, there has been
no winner in the country s pol-
itics.
"All are losing. There are no
winners when 50 per cent is in
power and 50 per cent is out, since
Burnham s days."
Urging the authors to speak
about the book to help shape new
solutions, he said UWI had a role
to play in refuting traditionally
held concepts.
UWI history lecturer Dr
Michael Toussaint, doing a review
of the book, described it as a can-
did and frank analysis that has
gone into "uncharted waters."
"In T&T, we don t discuss race,
because we are afraid or unable
to. But we have to ventilate," he
said.
Toussaint, who also appealed
to politicians to read the book,
said it explored the issue of race
and politics in Guyana and T&T
from the time of European contact
to the present.
"It tells how Indians refer to
Africans as Rawan and Africans
say the only good Indian is a dead
one," he said. "It tells how, in the
end, individuals, notwithstanding
race, are caught up in survival and
racial boundaries fall at times."
Toussaint said the book presents
statistics which showed political
parties could be winning elections
but becoming less significant.
Justice Joseph, in his address,
noted when there were less spoils
associated with political power,
there was less tension among the
electorate. He said the perception
that the party in power rewarded
friends and counterparts infuri-
ated groups.
Gordon told the Guardian it
was a tremendous publication
but said there was a need for
authors to write, not so much
about the racial situation of the
past, but about how the country
should look in the not too distant
future.
La Guerre said in this changing
world there is no longer talk of
"Indian" and "negro." "There is
the use of coded language to
beckon."
La Guerre said identity
remained a driving force in inter-
actions among groups here and
globally but said in T&T, "We
can t help bouncing into each
other."
In Guyana, where racial vio-
lence was common, the groups
remained separated for long peri-
ods because of the large size of
the country, he said.
Bissessar said she thought the
book touched areas nobody had
touched before.
UWI principal advises T&T:
Move away from
politics of race
Homeless man smashes glass
doors on 2 High Street stores
accidently broke the glass
door around 4.17 am.
Akim said officials
reviewing the footage saw
the nude man stumble
into the glass door. The
store s security firm
checked the building and
nothing was missing. He
said it cost the store
$2,500 to repair the glass
door.
Hypolite said, "They
need to do something
about the street dwellers."
Yesterday, employes
were seen cleaning up the
broken glass before the
businesses were opened
to the public.
Bartlett said yesterday s
incident was another
example of the distress
businesses face on High
Street because of street
dwellers.
She said business peo-
ple are frustrated with the
lack of action being taken
to remove the street
dwellers.
"It is time the minister
really put his words into
action and get these peo-
ple off the streets...It is
such a nuisance," she
said.
"They urinate and
defecate all over the pave-
ment. It is a cost to the
country to really keep the
streets clean and to sani-
tise the area because this
is the same people who
are doing the wrong
(thing) and it is high time
that they do it (remove
them.) I just cannot
understand why this is
taking so long."
Bartlett said street
dwellers are not a new
problem in San Fernan-
do.
A police officer tries to get information from a man who gave his name as Cyrus after
the glass doors of Standard Distributors and Bang Bang store were reportedly
damaged on High Street, San Fernando. PHOTO: KRISTIAN DE SILVA